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Anti-discrimination commissioner Ataman: uncover unfair structures
Photo: Metodi Popov / IMAGO
Women in Germany still earn significantly less than men, Equal Pay Day is intended to remind people of this on Tuesday.
The Federal Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, Ferda Ataman, took this as an opportunity to demand a reform of the Pay Transparency Act.
The law has banned unequal pay based on gender since 2017.
In addition, it enables employees of larger companies to request information about the criteria according to which they are paid.
This is intended to uncover unfair structures and bring companies to make improvements.
However, Ataman criticizes the implementation in practice.
"Although we have a pay transparency law, it is still difficult for many women to prove pay inequality in concrete terms," she told the "Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland".
"The right to information in the Pay Transparency Act only applies to larger companies with 200 or more employees - and there are too many loopholes." So it doesn't make sense why women in a small company have no right to information about possible wage inequalities, but in larger companies they do .
With the »further development« of the law announced in the coalition agreement, care must be taken to ensure that the law will apply to all companies in the future.
"This needs improvement," Ataman said.
The right to sue for associations mentioned in the coalition agreement is also overdue.
"I don't understand the opposition to such a right to sue," said Ataman.
"A right to take collective action would also make sense in other cases of discrimination and belongs in the General Equal Treatment Act."
"Unequal pay is discrimination by law," Ataman emphasized.
»Germany cannot afford to keep paying women less in the 21st century.
Despite progress in wage transparency in recent years, politicians must continue to take countermeasures.«
According to the Federal Statistical Office, women in Germany earned an average of 18 percent less per hour in 2022 than men.
However, it must be taken into account that women are more often employed in poorly paid jobs.
The part-time quota is also higher.
zob/dpa-AFX
